


So This Is Love

by kells1201



Category: Lady Bird (2017)
Genre: F/M, Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-03 19:20:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14002896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kells1201/pseuds/kells1201
Summary: Kyle Scheible from "Lady Bird" is a senior in high school and a total asshole, unlikeable player, until he meets a girl, Athena Rose, that will change his heart and his mind. But will he allow his reputation to be ruined to be with this girl? Or will he break her heart just like the many, many girls that came before her?





	1. Chapter 1

Athena Rose Roberts is just like every other girl, but nothing like any other girl. She likes iced coffee and puppies and going to parties, but she also enjoys reading Shakespeare and going to protests and volunteering all her time. She was passionate and excited about the things she enjoyed and her appearance reflected that; she had vivid fiery red hair that matched the bright spark burning inside her. Her eyes were blue like the sea and her smile has dazzling, it could light up an entire room. Freckles covered every bit of her skin, making her body look like the night sky sprinkled with constellations. Her wardrobe was full of vintage outfits that matched her taste in music and movies. Everything about her was absolutely radiant. 

Kyle Scheible, on the other hand, was exactly like every other boy. He liked smoking weed and sleeping with a different girl every week and skipping classes. He wanted nothing to do with the world and his appearance matched that; his curly brown hair was always in his face, closing him off from the world. His light brown eyes rarely looked up but when they did, they were judgmental and heartless. Unless of course he was looking at a girl he was about to sleep with, then his eyes were full of lust. He rarely ever smiled but more often than not, his mouth curled into a mocking smirk. His skin was pale and his wardrobe full of black skinny jeans and leather jackets contrasted with it. Everything about him was mysterious and secretive. 

They were never meant to meet, they were too different. But one Tuesday afternoon, Athena Rose was rushing around the corner to make it to class on time, while Kyle was walking from the opposite direction to slip out the school's side doors and skip his next hour of class. Neither was looking where they were going and they crashed into each other, causing Athena Rose to drop her books and papers all over the floor. Kyle scoffed and stepped around her, ready to ignore he completely, but she looked up at him and said, "So you aren't going to help me?"

Kyle looked at her like he was shocked she would even dare talk to her and asked, "Why would I?"

"Because you made me drop my stuff. If you had just been watching where you were going, this wouldn't have happened." 

Kyle began walking away again but the girl grabbed his arm and pulled him back. This chick was really serious about wanting help. Kyle rolled his eyes and knelt down next to the girl and began helping her with her papers. He noticed her name "Athena Rose" was scribbled across the tops of all her worksheets. "So you have two first names? That's weird," Kyle chuckled. 

Athena Rose looked at him and said, "It makes me unique," before grabbing the papers from Kyle's hand and standing up. "Aren't you going to ask my name?" Kyle asked.

"No, I don't really care. Thanks for your moderate amount of help. I'm going to class now, you probably should too," she said before walking away. Kyle was shocked that someone would talk to him like that. "My name's Kyle, by the way," he shouted down the hall after her. He was pleased with himself about getting the last word in and stood up. 

As he walked out the doors of the school and into the world, he couldn't help but think of her, of Athena Rose. Most girls swooned in the presence of him, why hadn't she? All of a sudden, he was full of determination; he was going to get that girl to fall in love with him. Of course, he wouldn't like her back, he never liked girls back, he simply liked the attention and the sex. But he couldn't stand to think that a girl out there didn't like him, it could ruin his reputation. It pissed him off and, as he lit a cigarette, he began to think of what he could do to get Athena Rose to swoon in his presence.


	2. Chapter 2

"And then she tried to pull my hair so I just had to slap the bitch."

Kyle looked up from his phone at the half naked girl in his bed. He nodded his head and rolled his eyes a bit. She had come home with him after school so they could fool around and they ended up having sex. But it'd been 15 minutes since they finished and she was still in his bed. He couldn't even remember her name; Marie or Mary or Maggie or something like that but he didn't know for sure. He rarely knew the girls' names though. Usually they came, they fucked, they left and that was that. But this damn girl wouldn't leave his bed. 

"Don't you think I had reason to slap her?" Marie or Mary or Maggie asked, cocking her head. Kyle nodded his head again and looked back down at his phone. He had no clue what she was going on about. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh huh..."

"You aren't listening! Do you even care?"

Kyle looked up at her angry eyes. "Uh huh."

She scoffed and stood up. "Fine. I'm leaving then if you don't even want to listen to me."

Finally, thought Kyle. She picked her clothes up off the floor and haphazardly threw them on. Kyle ran his hand through his hair, "Let's do this again sometime." She glared at him and ran out of his room. Kyle laughed to himself and opened up Instagram on his phone. He scrolled through post after post of fake smiles and song lyrics and booty pics on the beach. He scrolled past a picture of a group of girls in leotards and ballet tights. But something caught his eye. One of the girls looked familiar. Her red hair was pulled up into a tight bun, and her arms and face were covered in freckles that kept going down into her leotard. It was the weird girl from the hallway, Athena Rose. He scoffed. "Of course she's a ballerina," he said to no one in particular. 

He thought back on the scene in the hallway, how she seemed unbothered by him, how she seemed so nonchalant. He got angry again. He clicked on her profile and noticed it wasn't like every other girl's Instagram. Instead of booty pics and endless amounts of selfies, she had videos of her favorite bands playing live. She had candid photos of her friends smiling and laughing. She had almost no pictures of her and almost all her pictures were of other people. So she's not a narcissist, he thought. Or if she is, she's good at hiding it. "What a cliche," he said again to no one but the empty air in the room. "She's not like other girls... Sounds like the opening line to every bad teenage coming of age movie." Kyle hated coming of age movies. They were full of cliches that weren't real anywhere but in the films themselves. They were fake and Kyle hated fake. 

Kyle glanced at the time on his phone. "Shit!" He was going to be late to his band's rehearsal. He threw on some clothes, grabbed his bass, and ran out the door with Athena Rose and her nonchalant ways still on his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

"Kyle, your counselor wants to see you," his math teacher, Mr. Curry, said while handing Kyle a pass brought from the office. "Go ahead and head down there." Kyle shoved his notebook and pen into his backpack and slung the bag on his shoulder. "Go straight to the office, Kyle. No detours!" his teacher said right before Kyle shut the door and started to walk to the office.

Once he got to the office, Kyle slumped into a chair next to a girl and pulled out his phone. "Hey, you're that guy from the hallway. Kyle, right?"

Kyle looked up from his phone and saw the girl sitting next to him was Athena Rose. What are the fucking chances? "Yeah, and you're the girl with two first names." He paused for a moment before saying, "The unique one." She laughed and nodded. "That's me, the unique one..."

"So what are you down here for?" he asked. 

She shrugged and looked down at her shoes silently. Kyle decided not to pry and instead studied Athena Rose's outfit. Unique was definitely one word for it. She was wearing a denim jacket with bright, colorful patches stitched into it haphazardly and under the jacket, was a vintage Weezer t-shirt. _So she has good taste in music_ , Kyle thought. She was wearing a denim skirt and bright knee high socks that somehow complimented all the patches on her jacket. She was wearing the same exact shoes as Kyle, black Chuck Taylors. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the shrill voice of the lady behind the desk. "Kyle Scheible, your counselor is ready to see you."

Kyle stood up and as he was slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he turned back to Athena Rose and said, "By the way, nice shirt," and winked. As he turned back around to walk to his counselor's office, he could've sworn he'd seen her blush. He smiled a smug smile to himself as he walked to greet his counselor, Mrs. Hart. 

"Good morning, Kyle. It's a pleasure to see you. Go ahead and take a seat." Kyle flung his backpack on the floor next to the chair and sat down. "So Mr. Curry and I have been talking about your progress in his class. He feels that College Algebra is too easy a class for you. He thinks you should move up a level to Precalculus." 

Kyle's mouth fell open. "But I can't take Precalc. I'm not smart enough for that. I mean I have a C in Algebra right now. I can't move up."

"You only have a C because you don't turn in your homework. Kyle, you're smarter than you think. You just need to believe in yourself." Kyle rolled his eyes and shook his head. He couldn't believe this. He thought he was going to be able to breeze by senior year with easy classes but now he was being forced to take precalc? Who does she think she is? "There's no question in the matter. Mr. Curry and I have already made the decision that you're being moved up. I called you up here to inform you on the decision and give you your new schedule."

After Kyle got his new schedule, Mrs. Hart sent him on his way. He studied the new schedule and groaned. His entire day was switched around which meant he didn't have classes with any of his friends anymore. He trudged to his new second hour class, Anatomy. He still had the same teacher, Mr. Fales, which has a relief. He was directed to sit in a seat near the front of the room. As the bell rang, a girl scurried through the door and sat down next to him. "Are you fucking kidding me?" he said under his breath. 

The girl looked up. "Oh, um hey Kyle..." she said confused.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Athena Rose... it's a pleasure to see you again."  _How the fuck are we in the same class?_ he thought.  _This is some crazy fanfic, teenage romcom shit here._ He looked at her. At least she's pretty, he could keep running into a horribly ugly girl. That would be the worst. 

Then he realized that these circumstances were perfect. He could flirt with Athena Rose and reel her in. He got an hour with her everyday and he was determined to get her to like him. He realized that maybe this plan was a little egotistical and crazy but he didn't care. She was a pretty girl who wasn't paying attention to him and he needed to change that. 


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a few weeks since Kyle had changed schedules and he had made no progress whatsoever with his plan to woo Athena Rose; he was starting to get impatient. It was almost like Mr. Fales had read his mind and heard Kyle's struggles because that day in class, Mr. Fales announced they would be working on a project outside of class with their lab partners. Kyle saw this as the perfect opportunity to win her over. After class, he stopped Athena Rose before she could walk away and said, "Why don't you come over to my house after school today and we can work on the project?" She nodded. "Meet me outside the library after 7th period," he said as he walked away and winked. 

The rest of the day flew by quickly and as the last bell of the day rang, Kyle started to head for the library. He felt someone tap his shoulder and he turned to see the girl he had slept with a couple weeks ago smiling at him. He couldn't even remember what her name started with anymore. "Hi, Kyle! I haven't heard anything from you lately. I've been texting you but you haven't answered." He nodded his head and kept walking. "Why haven't you texted me back?" she asked following him. 

"Look, I obviously haven't texted you back for a reason, did you ever think of that? Maybe I just don't like you." Kyle paused and flinched at his own words. That was a bit harsh, even for him. He turned to the girl to apologize but she had tears in her eyes and was already walking past him, slamming into his shoulder on her way past. Kyle felt bad for what he said and felt even worse that he didn't even know the girl's name but he put those thoughts out of his mind almost as soon as he thought them. He can't help the way he feels. It's not his fault.

He kept making his way through the crowd of students until he made it to the library and saw Athena Rose sitting in front of the library. She had her nose in a book.He tapped her shoe lightly with his foot to get her attention. "Let's go," he said. "I'll drive." He started to walk away but noticed she wasn't following him, she was still sitting on the ground. "Aren't you going to help me up?" she asked with an outstretched arm. Kyle rolled his eyes and pulled her up. 

"Don't you think it's a bit rude to assume someone's just going to help you up?"

"Don't you think it's a bit rude to leave someone sitting alone on the ground?" she asked, half laughing as she said it. Kyle rolled his eyes, "Are you going to want me to open the car door for you too? And fasten your seat belt?" Athena Rose just laughed and shook her head. 

Kyle did end up opening the car door for her, not because he was being polite but only because it got stuck and Athena Rose couldn't open it. It took about 30 seconds up pulling and struggling for him to get it open. Once he turned on the car, he stuck a Green Day CD into the player and was met with a laugh. "You still use CDs?" 

"She's an old car," Kyle said defensively. 

"She?"

"Yeah. My car is a she and her name is Betty. My dad named her."

Athena Rose nodded. "That's a nice name. And this is a good song," she said as she turned up the music. She turned it up just loud enough that they couldn't talk to each other over it, but not loud enough to hurt their ears. Kyle was thankful for that. He had no clue what to even talk to her about. 

A few minutes and two Green Day songs later, they arrived at Kyle's house. He pushed the front door open and led Athena Rose straight to his room. He didn't want her to meet any of his family members. When they walked in Kyle's room, they were met with a beagle jumping up on them. Kyle chuckled a little bit and said, "Down boy. Down, Zeus." He looked around his room and saw the pile of dirty clothes in the corner of his room. He hastily picked them up and threw them in the hamper in his closet. 

Athena Rose walked around his room looking at the things hanging on his walls. There were band posters and pictures of him and his family from years ago on vacations, but nothing recent. "I didn't know you were an artist," Athena Rose said, admiring some drawings on his walls.

"Oh they're just sketches. They're nothing special... My dad taught me how to draw."

"Well your dad is really talented."

"He was..."

Athena Rose looked up at him with sad eyes. "Oh... I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

Kyle looked down at the floor. "It's fine. It's not your fault. It's been 3 years since he... uh... yeah." Kyle looked down at the floor and kicked his bed lightly. 

Athena Rose quickly tried to change the subject. "Should we get to work on the project? We only have a week to do it and it looks like it might take a while to finish." Kyle nodded and sat on the edge of his bed. Athena Rose began fishing supplies out of her backpack and sat next to him. Kyle tried to not let the pain in his eyes show; he didn't want to let his weakness through. But as soon as he felt a soft hand on top of his, he knew he had failed. He looked up at Athena Rose and she looked back at him with sympathy and understanding. He sighed and buried his face in his hands, trying to get a hold of himself. When he looked back up, Athena Rose was busy going through her backpack and she said, "So let's get started. The project isn't going to start itself." 

That's when Kyle realized she was going to let what just happened go. She was going to pretend it never happened. And he was so thankful for that. He had never shown anyone outside his family anywhere near that much emotion before. He couldn't figure out what about Athena Rose allowed him to show those feelings. Maybe she made him feel safe and shit, or maybe she was the first person to even ask about his dad in a while, he didn't know. All he knew was that he couldn't allow his feelings to slip again; it made him feel weird and exposed and he didn't like it. 


End file.
